Like thousands of young men before and after him, in 1967 at just nineteen years old, Ron Copeland was drafted into the US Army, trained as an infantry soldier, and shipped off to Vietnam.

He spent the next year of his life immersed in the fear, fatigue, tedium, and moral ambiguity that comes with life in a combat zone, while forming deep bonds with his fellow soldiers. Contrary to the losers, addicts, and crazed baby killers that Vietnam veterans have been portrayed to be, Ron found them to be "good boys from every corner of our country, black and white, rich and poor, who did as...